HOCKEY

HOCKEY; New Owners Take Over and Promise to Jump-Start Isles

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: June 21, 2000

The new co-owner of the Islanders said yesterday that he had not started negotiations to alter the team's unfavorable lease at aging Nassau Coliseum.

''I've not had a single conversation on lease economics with anyone,'' said Sanjay Kumar, whose $187.5 million purchase of the Islanders with Charles Wang was approved yesterday by the National Hockey League's board of governors.

Kumar said the lease the team has at the Coliseum with SMG, the landlord, ''is not No. 1 on my list.''

''No. 1 is to field the best team possible, and No. 2 is to improve the fan experience,'' he said. ''Economics and a new facility, the time will come.'' He said talks with SMG may not start until the fall.

The league also approved the $175 million acquisition of the Devils from John McMullen by Puck Holdings, an entity controlled by the primary shareholders of YankeeNets, and the purchase of the Colorado Avalanche by Stanley Kroenke, a real estate developer.

The N.H.L.'s approval of Wang and Kumar ends a tumultuous period during which the team bounced from John Pickett, to John Spano, who is in jail for defrauding banks to finance his purchase of the team, back to Pickett, and, since early 1998, to Howard and Edward Milstein and Stephen Gluckstern.

Kumar, who runs Computer Associates International with Wang, said more season tickets had been sold for the coming season than for any of the past four years and there were commitments to lease all luxury boxes.

The player payroll, only $16 million last season, will be increased. The new spending will depend, in part, on the players the team selects in Saturday's entry draft. The Islanders own the No. 1 pick.

''Our strategy is to spend with a purpose,'' he said. ''We have no intention to spend on a whim.'' His inclination is to supplement the Islanders' strategic acquisitions, not sign one expensive free agent.

He added that by the home opener in October, there will be improved seating and concessions at the Coliseum.

Meanwhile, Bob Gutkowski and Charles Koppelman, who unsuccessfully tried to buy the Islanders earlier this year, yesterday took over the management of Worldwide Entertainment & Sports, a Manhattan marketing, management and Internet company. Its clients include the boxers Shannon Briggs and Chris Byrd, and the football players O. J. McDuffie and Antonio Freeman.